Fairy Tail High School
by jalexis4eva
Summary: For Lucy Heartfilia, it's a new beginning. As the daughter of the wealthy Jude Heartfilia, she has always attended the finest private schools, but has now made the brave decision to embark into the unknown, Fairy Tail High School. Could anything have really prepared her for the chaos that is this new school? High School fic, definitely friendship, hopefully some romance too.
1. The First Day

**So, I'm back. After a couple of months off due to exams, this is my return to fanfiction.**

**But it's kind of not a return, but a new start, because this is a new story in a new anime. My second Fairy Tail fanfic, but my first was a 400 word One chapter story, which didn't get much notice. So I'm hoping that this will go down well. Not sure if there are many Fairy Tail High School fanfiction stories, but I really hope there aren't, because I'm really excited about starting this. **

**Not much to say, other than, I really hope whoever's reading this really enjoys it. Please be gentle in the reviews, I am a bit rusty when it comes to writing at the moment. **

"Princess, wake up! If you don't get ready soon, you'll be late for your first day!"

Lucy's eyes reluctantly fluttered open. She wearily sat up in bed, trying to process what she'd just heard. Out of the corner of her eye, she checked the digital clock on her bedside table.

08:05

She blinked, before yawning and laying back down, pulling the covers over herself again. What was Virgo shouting about? It was only 8, and she usually didn't get up before 11. Plus what did she mean first day?

First day.

Lucy's eyes shot open. Today was the first day.

She jumped out of bed, scrambling towards the bedroom door, tripping over herself several times. How could she have forgotten? Today was her first day.

She swung open the bathroom door and reached for her toothbrush, cursing when she hastily squeezed far too much toothpaste onto it. "Figures, I was so excited last night about today, that I completely forgot to set my alarm. And now I'm going to be late. On my first day! Talk about making a bad first impression..." she muttered to herself.

"Princess, are you OK?" Virgo called from outside the door, having heard Lucy's rushing around upstairs.

"Virgo! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

There was a short pause, before Virgo answered. "I'm sorry Princess. Perhaps you need to punish me?"

Lucy sighed. She swore there was something wrong with her maid. Then again, she probably shouldn't complain. There aren't too many teenage girls who are lucky enough to even have a maid. "N-no. That won't be necessary... Is breakfast ready?"

"Yes, it's ready for you princess."

"Thank you Virgo!" Even though she didn't approve of Virgo's... desires, Lucy was still grateful for Virgo's prescence in the house. Ever since Lucy had been a child, Virgo had always been there, the one responsible for running the house. Lucy's mother, Layla, had passed away when she was just 7, and her father, Jude, was always so busy with work, so they never spent much time together and he was never at home.

Because of this, Jude had hired Virgo to run the house in place of Layla, and to be largely responsible for raising Lucy, along with the other servants. Even though Lucy and her father had moved to Magnolia at the beginning of the summer, Jude had still managed to convince most of the servants to move with them, having to raise the wages of some of them in some cases. Either way, Lucy was grateful that not much had changed at home, despite moving to a new town.

She hurriedly opened her wardrobe, extremely conscious of the fact that she was in a hurry, and pulled down the uniform that she had spent a good hour last night trying on and modelling. She clumsily put it on, twirling around in the mirror, and adjusting it a couple of times, wanting to make it look perfect. She giggled girlishly, admiring herself in the mirror. "Who knows, maybe I'll finally get a boyfriend! It's a new start after all!"

She glanced back at the clock. 08:15. she sighed and momentarily contemplated her dilemma. She could go downstairs, eat breakfast, and definitely be late. Or she could skip breakfast for one morning, hurry to school, and maybe just make it on time.

Despite her moaning stomach, she went for option B. She quickly descended the stairs, hopping down the last 3 in one jump, excitement and anticipation beginning to bubble up inside of her. At the bottom of the stairs, her sickly puppy, Plue, was waiting for her, weakly barking when she reached him. She smiled at his cuteness. "Sorry Plue, I'm running late today. But we'll talk later, when I get home, OK?" Plue yipped in agreement, and Lucy's heart melted a little bit. Plue was too cute for his own good!

She exhaled once to calm herself down, before opening the front door, happy to see that her limo had already pulled up, her butler, Caprico, in the driver's seat, eyeing his watch. He looked at Lucy, and smirked, seeing how excited she was.

Lucy was about to hop down the steps of her porch, when Virgo emerged from the kitchen. "Wait Princess, you forgot your breakfast!"

Lucy smiled apologetically at Virgo. "Sorry Virgo, I'm really going to be late. I'm sure the rest of the staff will enjoy it though."

Virgo slowly nodded, a little disappointed. "I understand." Lucy gave Virgo a small hug, before running to the car and opening the door to the passenger seat. "Oh, wait Princess!" Lucy looked back at her. "Before your father left this morning, he told me to wish you good luck today."

Lucy nodded, getting into the car. "Thank you Virgo!"

She then turned to Caprico, and smiled in greeting. "Morning Caprico! Sorry I'm a little late."

He shook his head. "You need not apologize Miss Lucy. I'll drive quicker to make up for any time lost."

Lucy nodded gratefully. "Thank you Caprico!" She relaxed back in her seat as the car sped down the drive and onto the road. This was it! The day that she had been looking forward to all summer...

Her first day at her new High School, Fairy Tail High!

######

"...Also, Mr Heartfilia requested that I drop you off in front of the School gates and escort you into your classroom... Will that be alright?"

No answer. Caprico glanced to the side, where Lucy was staring out of the window dreamily. "Miss Lucy?"

"Huh?" Lucy smiled sheepishly. She had spaced off as soon as the drive had begun, and hadn't been paying attention to anything that Caprico had said.

"Mr Heartfilia requested that I personally escort you to your class today morning. This is the first time you'll be attending a... Public School."

Lucy giggled at the way Caprico scoffed when he said "Public School". Honestly, neither he nor her father had been too pleased when she had suggested attending a public school. She had been unhappy at her middle school, disliking some of her arrogant class mates. Her father was originally completely against the idea, but Lucy had managed to wear him down. And when he was beaten, Caprico, even though he was still very much against the idea, had to begrudgingly accept that Miss Lucy was going to a "Commoner's School" as he had originally called it. Lucy had managed to get him to stop calling it that, but he still wasn't happy about the whole situation.

Lucy gave him her best pleading look. "Oh, you don't have to do that...""

Caprico stared straight ahead, pretending to be completely focused on the road so that he wouldn't have to look at Lucy. She knew he had a soft spot for her 'pleading look'. "I'm sorry Miss Lucy, Mr Heartfilia specifically asked me to do this. I can't-"

"But Caprico..."

Caprico mentally sighed. He couldn't even resist her pleading voice. Just like Virgo, he had been around Lucy ever since she was a small child, and she'd always been able to get him with that voice. "Alright. But you must not tell Mr Heartfilia."

Lucy smiled widely. Victory. "Thank you so much Caprico!"

"Y-Yes Miss Lucy."

The rest of the journey was completed in silence, with Caprico trying to think of ways of secretly following Lucy into the school, whilst Lucy just daydreamed about what was to come.

She looked out of the window, recognizing the streets. A couple of days after they had moved to the new house, Caprico had taken her to the new school, just to familiarize himself with the route since he would be the one dropping her to school every morning, then picking her up in the evening. Because of this, Lucy knew they were close now. "Uh.. Caprico. One last favor."

"Yes Miss Lucy?"

"Can you drop me off here?"

Caprico nearly lost control of the car for a second, his eyes widening. The car skidded to a halt. "B-But why? We're not at the school yet."

Lucy smiled weakly, not meeting Caprico's gaze. She felt her cheeks heat up. "I-It's just... If the other students see me arriving in a limo... they might... you know... judge me. I just... I don't want them to just think of me as a spoilt rich girl. I know father said-"

"OK. I understand."

Lucy's eyes widened, and she looked up at Caprico, who was smiling gently. "But, again, you must not tell Mr Heartfilia..."

Lucy nodded fervently. "I won't! I promise!"

Caprico smiled. "You should get going then. If you don't hurry, you'll be late."

Lucy smiled, gave Caprico a quick hug, and kicked open the car door, excitedly jumping out and hopping onto the sidewalk. She gave Caprico one last wave, before setting of in the direction of the school, opting for a quicker walk rather than a flat out run, not looking back.

Caprico smiled as he watched her retreating form. Regardless of what he wanted, she wasn't who she used to be. She was growing up, no longer the little girl she once was.

######

Lucy groaned as she reached the school gates. The front of the school was completely empty, meaning that all the students were in class, which meant one thing.

She was late.

She looked at her watch, it was ten past nine, making her only ten minutes late. "Jeez, the students here are so prompt. I mean, I know it's the first day of school, but still..."

"Hey, Look out!"

Lucy turned around, seeing a boy with pink hair, on a bicycle, set on a collision course with her. He was frantically trying to adjust his handlebars and turn away from her, but he failed, and before she could react, he collided with her, his bike crashing into her, bringing her to the ground with a shriek, whilst he was sent flying a bit ahead of her.

Lucy pushed the bike off her, and looked at the pink haired boy, who was lying stretched out on the ground. Suddenly, he sat up, rubbing the back of his head, not appearing hurt in any way. He looked at her, seemingly just remembering that she was there, before smiling sheepishly. "Ah, sorry about that. I lost control of my bike for a second. I'm usually the only one who's late, so I wasn't expecting there to be anyone here..."

Lucy nodded slowly. He then grinned at her. "But I don't recognize you, so you must be new here! I'm Natsu!" He stuck his hand out, still grinning widely.

Lucy cautiously took his hand and shook it slowly. "I'm Lucy." Lucy opened her mouth to speak again, when she heard a small 'meow'. She looked around for the source of the noise, before realizing it was coming from Natsu's bag, which had been balanced on the bicycle before the collision and was lying just a bit away from her.

Natsu laughed at her reaction, walking over to his bag and picking it up. "Haha, don't worry, that's just Happy." He unzipped the bag, and pulled out a blue kitten. He scratched the kitten behind it's ears, the kitten replying with a content purr.

"Y-You're allowed pets in school?"

Natsu rubbed the back of his head, laughing nervously. "N-no, not really. But I couldn't just leave Happy alone at home... he'd get lonely."

Lucy frowned. "And you were just going to keep him in your bag?"

Natsu opened his mouth, before pausing. "Huh. Yeah, I really didn't think this through..."

Lucy stared at him in disbelief. Was he actually being serious?

"Anyway, Luigi-"

"Lucy."

"Sorry, Lucy. If you're new here, do you know where you're going?"

Lucy shook her head. "Not really. I'm in classroom 7 for registration I think..."

Natsu looked at her, surprised. "Seriously?"

Lucy didn't understand why Natsu was so surprised, but nodded. Natsu grinned.

"I'm there too! We must be in the same class! That's great, I'll show you around!"

Lucy smiled. "Really? Th-thank you."

Natsu nodded, again offering her his hand, this time to help her up. She took it and he pulled her up, not letting go afterwards, but instead pulling her towards the school building. "Wait, Natsu!"

Natsu turned to look at her. "What?"

"Your bike?"

Natsu looked down at the ground, where his bike was still lying in a heap. He gave the same sheepish grin as before. "Oh yeah, Forgot about that."

######

After Natsu had made the short trip to the bike shed to drop off his bike, he hurriedly led Lucy into the school, after Lucy had pointed out that the whole incident with the bike had made them both even later than they had been.

"This is it!" Natsu practically shouted outside the door to classroom 7, probably alerting everyone inside the room. Lucy giggled at Natsu. He was certainly... different from the people at her previous school. Lucy was about to knock on the door, when Natsu forcefully rammed it open, not bothering to knock. "I'm here! Sorry I'm late!" He loudly announced, confidently strolling into the classroom. He barely made it a couple of steps before he was stopped.

"Wait, Natsu," the teacher called from his desk. "You're late. As usual. I thought I told you to make an effort this year."

"But Macao-"

"Mr Conbolt."

"Sorry, Mr Conbolt. I overslept, plus I had to feed Happy and then I crashed my bike. It wasn't my fault this time!"

"Natsu, all of those things you listed were your fault."

Lucy nervously watched the interaction from the doorway. She didn't want the teacher to give her a hard time on her first day. "Um..."

Mr Conbolt, hearing her voice, turned his attention from Natsu to her, having not noticed her originally. He smiled kindly. "Ah, you must be the new girl, I've been expecting you. Come inside."

Lucy stepped inside, surprised by the teacher's reaction to her compared to his reaction to Natsu. Mr Conbolt turned to address the class. "Everyone, this is Lucy." He then looked back at Lucy, smiling somewhat playfully. "I'm so sorry that your first impression of this school was Natsu. Must be horrifying..."

Natsu whipped his head around and glared at the grinning teacher. "Hey! What's wrong with me!"

Mr Conbolt opened his mouth to answer, when a boy sitting at the back of the classroom, swinging back on his chair with his legs resting on the table, laughed. He had quite short black hair, and his white shirt was unbuttoned, revealing a very toned torso. "What's not wrong with you, stupid squinty eyes..."

Natsu glared at the boy, "Shut it Gray, stupid droopy eyes!"

"Oh? You looking for a fight?"

Natsu grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Sure, any time..."

Mr Conbolt groaned, getting up. "H-Hey, come on guys, it's the first day... Plus we have a new student. Could you please refrain from killing each other for now..."

"It's fine Mr Conbolt!" A large boy, sitting just in front of Gray, shouted. "They're MEN! Real MEN aren't afraid to fight!"

Mr Conbolt sighed. "Elfman, please, I really don't need-"

Then a boy sitting a couple of seats across from Gray, stood up. He had long, messy, black hair, and what looked like iron studs embedded into his face. "Hey, Salamander, I was watching your fall from the window, when you crashed into the new girl. You're such an klutz!"

Lucy frowned. "Salamander?"

"That's Natsu's nickname," A girl sitting in the front of the classroom, supplied. She had long, brown, wavy hair, and had the top couple of buttons of her shirt undone, showing off some of her ample cleavage."I'm Cana by the way."

Lucy opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by Natsu. "Gajeel! Shut the hell up you jerk, I'll kick your ass when I'm done with Gray!"

"Like you could!" Both Gray and Gajeel shouted back simultaneously.

Mr Conbolt collapsed back in his chair, groaning loudly. "Why do I even bother..." He looked tiredly at Lucy. "Sit down anywhere, I'll get you your books and show you to your locker after registration."

Lucy took the empty seat next to Cana, when she noticed a pair of eyes staring intently at her from the desk on her other side. She looked to the side, where a girl with long blue hair was looking at her, closely inspecting her. Lucy weakly smiled, but this seemed to put the girl on alert.

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Juvia is watching you. Keep away from my Gray."

"Gray? But I never-"

"Don't try to fool Juvia, Love Rival!"

"But I-"

Cana smirked, nudging Lucy on the back. "Don't worry, Juvia's like that with everyone. She's... protective when it comes to Gray."

Lucy nodded slowly. These people were definitely not like the students from her previous school, that's for sure.

"Besides, I don't want to hear that from you, you pervert!"

"Eh, who're you calling a pervert, Dumbass!"

"You, Droopy eyes! Are your ears full of wax or something?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. Those two were still arguing at the back of the classroom. She looked to the right, where Juvia was staring at Gray, spellbound. Lucy shook her head and looked to the left, where Cana was looking pissed off. She turned around and glared at the two.

"That's it, you two, Shut up!"

Natsu and Gray both whipped their heads around and glared at her. "Or else what?" They growled in unison.

Cana smirked. "Or else... I'll tell you know who."

Lucy frowned. She was about to ask Cana what she meant, when Gray and Natsu instantly sat down and nodded weakly, in perfect sync with each other. "We-We're sorry," They apologized, again speaking in unison.

She looked at Cana, who had a smug smile on her face. "Wh-What happened?"

Cana smiled sweetly at her, winking. "Nothing really. I just know their weak spot."

Lucy was about to probe further, when the bell rang, and everyone got up and began to make towards the door. Lucy, remembering what Mr Conbolt had said, remained in her seat. Suddenly, she felt someone put their hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Natsu grinning at her. "Natsu? What are you doing?"

"What do you mean? I said I'd show you around, didn't I?"

"Well, yes, but-"

Suddenly, Gray poked his head back into the classroom. "Oy Flame Brain, what are you waiting for now, it's time for lessons."

Natsu shook his head. "Not yet, I'm waiting for Lucy."

Gray looked at Lucy. He stepped back into the classroom and walked up to Lucy's desk. "Sorry, I didn't realize you two knew each other. I'm Gray Fullbuster, nice to meet you." He offered her his hand.

Lucy took it, surprised by the polite introduction. He wasn't as alike Natsu as she thought. "I'm Lucy. Nice to meet you too."

Mr Conbolt then cleared his throat, getting the attention of the three. "If you're ready now, I'll take you to your locker. I was planning to show you around, but if Natsu and Gray are willing to do that, then I could probably just leave them to it."

Lucy nodded. Mr Conbolt smiled. "Excellent. Let's go."

He got up from his desk and opened the door, holding it open. Gray stepped aside, letting Lucy go through first, before slipping through himself, making sure not to let Natsu get out in front of him. The two struggled in the doorway for a bit, before they both squeezed out, Lucy giggling and Mr Conbolt rolling his eyes.

######

Mr Conbolt led Lucy through the crowded corridors, whilst Natsu and Gray bickered between each other behind them. The now very annoyed looking teacher finally stopped next to a block of six lockers.

"Gray's and Natsu's lockers are here, so I could give you this locker if you want? I was planning on giving you another one, but I do think I've got the key to this one somewhere..." He mumbled, digging around in his pocket. He smirked and pulled the key out of his pocket, and waved it in front of Lucy.

Lucy nodded, taking the key. "Thank you very much."

"No problem. If you ever need anything, just let me know. I'll now leave you in the... uh... capable hands of Natsu and Gray."

As soon as he was out of sight, Lucy turned to Natsu, who was arguing with Gray about something. "Um, Natsu?"

Natsu looked at her. "Yeah?"

"What are you going to do about your cat?"

Natsu gasped. Lucy sighed. He had completely forgotten about him. Natsu opened his locker and put his bag into it. He then immediately unzipped his bag, so that Happy could poke his head out. Luckily, everyone around them wasn't paying attention to them, and so didn't notice Happy. "Dunno. I guess I'll ask the old man to look after him for today."

"Old man?"

Gray rolled his eyes. "Idiot. You should call him the principal."

Natsu laughed, "Oh yeah, my bad. Principal Makarov."

Lucy frowned. "You call the principal 'old man'?"

"Only Natsu does," Gray replied. "They spend so much time together that they're like pals."

"Shut up Gray, you get in way more trouble that I do!"

"As if, you're the one who's always late, who never does his homework, who-"

"Ah, I've been looking for you two."

Lucy watched as Natsu and Gray froze. Their eyes widened simultaneously at the sound of that strong female voice, and they mechanically turned around, almost in slow motion, until they came face to face with the source of the voice. Lucy turned around too, honestly surprised. She had been expecting some kind of monster. I mean, Natsu and Gray looked absolutely terrified.

Instead, standing there was a girl, slightly taller than her, with long red hair. Regardless of her stern expression, she was very beautiful, Lucy noted, and was staring straight at Natsu and Gray who looked terrified. Lucy noticed it wasn't just Natsu and Gray who were completely silent. No one in the corridor was speaking, and they were all staring at this girl too, looking almost as frightened as Natsu and Gray.

Natsu and Gray didn't say anything, so she continued to speak. "Cana told me that you two were fighting in registration. What did I tell you about giving Mr Conbolt a hard time?"

"E-Erza!"

**So that's it, ending the chapter on a kind of cliffhanger I guess. So what will Erza do to them? Guess you'll have to wait until the next chapter, which won't be soon unfortunately, maybe next week.**

**But that's the first chapter, and I'd love it if I could get some reviews really. It will be tough since this is my first big Fairy Tail story, and I'm not a big writer on this site, but it really would be great if you could take some time now to just drop a review. They really do mean a lot to me.**

**Anyway, I'm rambling on at this point, so I'll end it now. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and are looking forward to more!**


	2. Playboys, Stalkers and just plain scary

**Hey guys, before I begin, I just want to give a massive thanks to the people who reviewed the last chapter. I'm very grateful to Areozone, xKishii and the wonderful Trafalgar-Sev for leaving some really nice reviews. I'm really glad that you enjoyed the first chapter. I was especially pleased to see Trafalgar-Sev, because he/she is a reader of one of my One Piece stories, and so it's great that you're reading this one too. Also great to see that you asked for Jellal x Erza because Jerza or Gerza is absolutely 100% my favorite Fairy Tail couple, and so I was never going to not write them into this story.**

**Speaking of that One Piece Story, I'm not done with that. I will definitely be looking to get some new chapters up for it, but at the moment, I do want to mainly concentrate on this new project if that's OK. **

**So I'm just really glad that I got those reviews for the first chapter, and I hope you'll continue to follow this story. That's all I really have to say at the moment, so just make sure that you enjoy this chapter!**

The girl cracked her knuckles and continued to stare straight at Natsu and Gray. "The first day, and already I have to beat some sense into you..."

Natsu and Gray gulped simultaneously. They both stepped backwards, trying to nudge the other in front. Lucy couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. Just what kind of monster was this girl? And what was she going to do to Natsu and Gray? All around, the crowd of onlookers that had formed were equally tense.

Suddenly, someone emerged from the crowd of onlookers. "Wait, Erza."

Lucy turned to see the source of the voice. Standing there was quite possibly the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. The girl had long white hair, with a small bunch at the front tied up, and round, kind-looking blue eyes. She had a gentle smile on her face. Erza frowned at her. "Mira?"

The girl stepped between the two boys and Erza and smiled apologetically at the redhead. "I think these two have learnt their lesson. Plus, I'm sure they'll be on their best behaviour from now on."

The girl continued to smile at Erza, who looked really annoyed to have been interrupted. After a short "stare-down" in which Lucy could tell both Natsu and Gray were sweating buckets, Erza scowled, but sighed, and dropped her arms to her side. "Honestly Mira, you're way too soft on them..."

The white haired girl smiled, and turned to Natsu and Gray, who both looked relieved. Gray smiled weakly at her. "Thanks so much Mira."

Natsu nodded in agreement, "Yeah, you're the best."

The girl, who Lucy had picked up was called Mira, giggled and was about to say something, when Erza spoke again, in a low threatening tone. "Don't celebrate too early, If I hear of anything else..."

Natsu and Gray both frantically shook their heads. "Y-You don't have to worry. We promise we'll be good."

Erza stared coldly at them, before slowly nodding. "OK. You should head to you lesson now then. No more messing around, or else..." She turned and began walking off, with Mira following her after giving Natsu and Gray one last reassuring smile. The surrounding crowd then began to disperse, and the tense atmosphere disappeared. Lucy went to Natsu and Gray's side, the two still looking somewhat shaken.

"Who were they?"

Natsu snapped out of his daze and looked at her, only just remembering Lucy. "The scary one was Erza and the nice one was Mira." Lucy opened her mouth, the answer really not giving her much useful information, but Gray spoke before she could ask.

"They're seniors, so they're a year older than us. Mirajane is the Student council President, whilst Erza's the Vice-president. They're pretty much opposites of each other personality-wise, so they work well together. Plus, Erza really does respect Mirajane. Thank God for us..."

Lucy nodded, more satisfied with Gray's answer. "That Erza sure seems scary..."

Natsu grinned, patting her reassuringly on the shoulder. "She does seem like that, but when you get to know her, she can be nice. It's just when you piss her off..."

######

After that encounter, Natsu hurried off to the principal's office with Happy, whilst Gray took Lucy to her first lesson, Maths, even though he wasn't in the same class as her. She asked him if he was worried that he'd be late, but he didn't seem to be too bothered.

However upon entering the classroom, Lucy was disappointed to see that she was again seemingly the last student to arrive, although the teacher forgave her for that seeing as she was new. Even worse though was that the only spare seat in the classroom was next to that Juvia girl, who was extremely jealous of Lucy after seeing Gray with her at the beginning of the lesson, as he had taken her to the lesson, something which he had clearly never done for her. Throughout the lesson Lucy repeatedly assured Juvia that she and Gray had only just met, and there was nothing going on between them, but Juvia was never convinced.

So Maths was mostly composed of Lucy struggling to listen to the teacher, whilst Juvia glared daggers at her for pretty much the whole lesson. It seemed like Juvia was going to be very difficult indeed for her to win over.

After Maths was break. After the lesson, Lucy had been the last to leave the classroom. When she made it to her locker, she was surprised, but happy, that Natsu was waiting for her, with Gray also there. Lucy couldn't help but observe that even though the two seemed to hate each other, they seemed to always be together. She also spotted Juvia hiding behind a nearby locker, probably stalking Gray. But Lucy decided against pointing her out to him, not wanting to anger Juvia even further.

Lucy was also surprised when Natsu told her that the Principal had agreed to look after Happy for the day. At her old school, the principal had been feared and the students didn't dare step out of line, lest they incur his wrath. Whereas here, from what she could tell from how Natsu talked about him, the students seemed to have a more friendly relationship with the principal.

Break was short though, and it wasn't long before the bell rang again, and it was time for the next lesson. Even though Natsu, Gray and Lucy all had English, Lucy wasn't in the same class as them, and so just like before, they showed her where the classroom was, before going to their own class.

######

Lucy took one last look at Natsu and Gray walking off, the two immediately breaking into an argument as soon as they had left her. She had been worried that it would be difficult to make friends in a new kind of school, but Natsu had pretty much forced himself onto her, whilst Gray seemed to be part of the 'Natsu Package'. Either way, she was grateful that she had those two to help her find her way around the school.

She opened the door, and was glad to see that the classroom wasn't full, meaning that for the first time that day, she actually was on time. She chose a seat near to the front of the classroom, not recognizing anyone in the class.

Then the door opened, and Cana walked in. She was adjusting her hair, when she spotted Lucy and smiled, recognizing her from the morning. She took the seat next to her on the left, smiling kindly at her. Lucy smiled back. She was about to say something when the door opened again.

In sauntered a tall boy with brown hair and blue tinted glasses, which he tipped up his nose as he entered. Lucy was immediately taken aback by how handsome this boy was, and he looked like someone who clearly spent a lot of time on his appearance. She also noticed how all the girls in the classroom, apart from Cana, were staring at him, not that he seemed affected. He actually seemed to enjoy the attention, pretending to not notice their adoring stares, but smirking slightly as he walked, showing that he really did. He took one look around at the class, looking at all of the girls especially and ignoring the boys, before he finally reached Lucy. At first he skipped over her, like he did the other girls, before he looked back at her, and fixed his eyes on hers. Lucy blinked, surprised by the attention, and turned around, to make sure he wasn't looking at anyone else, before confirming that he was indeed looking at her.

He chuckled at this reaction, and took the seat next to Lucy on the right. "I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting. I'm Loke."

Lucy laughed nervously, aware of the glares that she was receiving from every girl in the class. "I-I'm Lucy. I'm new here, this is my first day."

"Oh? So, what do you think?"

Lucy smiled weakly, really uncomfortable from the glares which Loke didn't seem to notice, or perhaps was just ignoring. "It's nice, the people here are very friendly."

Loke smirked. "Really? That's nice to hear, I'm glad you like it here." He looked like he wanted to say more, but just then the teacher walked in, and the lesson began.

######

English had been a weird lesson for Lucy. She was acutely aware that throughout the whole lesson Loke had been stealing glances at her, wanting to get her attention. The first couple of times she had looked at him and smiled out of politeness, but eventually it just got annoying, and she just began to ignore him.

Cana seemed to understand, giving Lucy a sympathetic smile when she noticed Lucy was beginning to get annoyed. Lucy now understood why Cana hadn't been interested when Loke entered the room. She must have been similarly put off by his overly flirtatious behavior at some point.

After the lesson, Lucy made sure to gather her books and leave the classroom quickly before Loke, who was talking to another girl, had a chance to talk to her. He seemed to be a bit of a playboy, and a playboy was the last kind of guy Lucy wanted to get involved with.

However she was disappointed when she reached her locker as neither Natsu nor Gray were there. She waited for a couple of minutes, but they still didn't come, and by then the corridors were becoming less busy as people had put their books in their lockers and had either headed to Lunch or outside.

Lucy sighed, she'd been hoping to have lunch with those two. Giving up on that, she opened her locker, at last putting her books away. Just then, she heard someone coming. She turned around, expecting to see Natsu's goofy grin, but was instead met with a stoic looking Erza.

Lucy unconsciously took a step backwards, causing Erza to look confused, not sure why Lucy seemed so startled. "Excuse me, do you know who Natsu and Gray are?" Lucy nervously nodded, and Erza smiled kindly. "In that case, have you seen them around anywhere? I've been looking for them."

Lucy relaxed slightly, but not completely. She didn't seem as scary now as she had been before. "No, sorry. I've been waiting for them too."

Erza blinked, before realization dawned on her. "Oh yes, now I recognize you. You were with Natsu and Gray this morning, weren't you?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes, my name is Lucy."

Erza offered Lucy her hand, with Lucy stiffly taking it, still on guard a little. "I'm Erza. Erza Scarlet." She gave Lucy an encouraging smile, mistaking Lucy's fear of her for mere shyness. "I assume you're new here. If you ever need any help, don't hesitate to come to me. As the Student Council Vice-President, It's my job to look after my fellow students."

Lucy weakly smiled. "Thank you very much. Yes, Gray told me about your position."

Erza nodded. An awkward silence descended between the two before Erza began tapping her feet impatiently. She glared up at the ceiling, as if she was imagining Natsu and Gray's faces being plastered up there. "Just where are they? I was hoping to have lunch with those two."

Lucy absentmindedly nodded. "Yeah, so was I."

Erza's eyes then lit up. "Is that so? Well, in that case, why don't we have lunch together? Yes, It's the perfect opportunity for us to get to know each other!"

"Eh, what?"

Erza smiled triumphantly. "Yes, actually, thinking about it now, things worked out perfectly! With those two not here, we can have a one on one conversation with no distractions. What a fantastic opportunity!"

"But, I-"

Lucy never finished, as Erza forcefully grabbed her arm, her eyes lit up with excitement, and literally dragged her towards the cafeteria.

######

Lucy had to be honest, Erza wasn't quite who she thought she was. On the way to the cafeteria, Erza had asked Lucy about what she thought about the school, if she had any problems, and even offered to give her a tour after lunch, which Lucy agreed to, more out of politeness than actual willingness

However Lucy had realized that she didn't need to be scared of Erza and opened up, asking her questions about the school too. By the time they eventually reached the cafeteria (It was a surprisingly big school), Lucy felt comfortable around Erza, and no longer feared her wrath. She was actually very kind, and was kind of goofy in her own way, not as much being stupid, but being slightly over-enthusiastic. Not that this mattered to Lucy, who was enjoying the more interesting personalities of the students in this school.

Erza opened the door to the cafeteria, holding it open for Lucy. Upon entering, the first thing which surprised Lucy was the sheer size of the cafeteria. It was as big as at least 5 classrooms put together.

Lucy looked around the whole room as she walked, not really paying attention to where she was going, but just taking in the atmosphere of the place. In her old school, lunch had been very quiet, but here, on every table she could see people laughing and shouting. The room was literally buzzing around her.

However, suddenly, Lucy, not watching where she was going, bumped into someone. She snapped her head around so that she was facing forwards again, feeling embarrassed. "Ah, Sorry," she blushed, smiling apologetically.

However, instead of meeting the face of who she had bumped into, she was faced with a very toned chest. She looked up to see a tall man with spiky yellow hair scowling at her. Under his uniform, she could see he was incredibly well built. He looked much older and stronger than the other students, Lucy would have mistaken him for a teacher if he wasn't sporting the same school uniform as everyone else.

"Oi, watch where you're going..." he muttered threateningly.

Lucy jumped back a little, suddenly feeling very scared indeed. They didn't have scary guys like this in her old school, that's for sure. "S-Sorry. I wasn't paying attention. I should-"

A boy with green hair emerged from behind the tall man. "Hey Laxus, what's going on? Is this girl giving you trouble?"

"My my, she looks very plain..." Lucy turned around to see a tall girl with wavy brown hair and glasses standing behind her, smirking teasingly at her.

Standing next to her, a boy with spiked up blue hair, grinned at her, his tongue stuck out. "Hey Ever, is how she looks really important?"

Lucy gulped slightly, suddenly feeling very threatened. She felt herself wanting Caprico near.

"Ah Lucy, there you are."

Laxus, Lucy and the three new people turned around to see Erza standing there, glaring straight at Laxus. "You strayed away from me there, I was wondering where you'd gotten off too."

Laxus turned his scowl from Lucy to Erza. "Oh. She's a friend of yours?"

Erza's glare deepened. "As a matter of fact, she is. Any problems?"

Laxus smirked cockily. "Maybe."

Erza narrowed her eyes. "Is that so?"

Laxus chuckled. "I don't care about that position of yours. Vice-president? Doesn't matter to me. You don't scare me... Titania."

Lucy gulped, noticing that the three with Laxus no longer looked so smug. She didn't know what was going to happen. She knew from what had happened earlier, that Erza was tough, and she could tell that this Laxus was strong, simply from looking at him. Were they really going to fight? Because of her? On her first day?

Was this school always like this?

"Is there a problem here?"

Someone else? On the table nearest to them, a boy had just stood up, and was staring at Laxus with a neutral expression. He had blue hair, and a tatoo running down the right side of his face. Lucy thought he looked just as scary as Laxus with that tatoo.

Laxus turned his attention from Erza and was now scowling at the blue haired boy. "Jellal? What do you want?"

The blue haired boy just stared down Laxus, seemingly unfazed by the threat of the giant man. "Depends. What do you want?"

"You really don't want to get involved with this..."

The boy remained silent, but continued to stare at Laxus. Lucy winced, and looked to Erza, wanting to see how she was reacting to the new person. However, Lucy gaped at what she saw. Erza was... blushing? It was faint, but her cheeks were undoubtedly tinted pink, and she was staring straight at the ground.

The stare down continued, neither of the two seemingly willing to back down. The whole cafeteria was silent at this point. Lucy silently wondered where exactly the teachers were. Suddenly, Laxus smirked, still staring this Jellal, whose expression still hadn't changed. It looked like something was about to happen. But what? Lucy gulped, she was the one who had started this after all...

Suddenly the doors of the cafeteria swung open, crashing against the walls of the room with a loud bang, shattering the tense silence of the standoff. Standing in the doorway were two familiar figures. "Man, I'm so hungry! You're such an idiot droopy eyes, making us late!"

"How was that my fault squinty eyes? You were the one who started it!"

Natsu was about to retort, when he spotted Lucy and Erza, and grinned. "Ah, you two! I'm glad we were able to catch up to you guys! Ice-brain here got us in trouble, and the teacher kept us in after the lesson."

Erza smiled gratefully, and took Lucy's hand and pulled her away from Laxus, Jellal and the others.

Lucy turned around and watched as Laxus said something, before turning around and walking away, his three lackeys following after him. Jellal frowned at him, before looking at Erza, who wasn't facing him. He stared at her for a few seconds, before noticing that Lucy was watching him.

For a split second, there two just stared at each other, not knowing how to react to one another. However, then Jellal did something which surprised Lucy.

He smiled at her.

It was a small, but friendly smile, and it only lasted a second or so, but it was real and genuine. Lucy couldn't help but smile back. Looks like she had another friend here.

######

It turned out that the reason Natsu and Gray had been so late was that the two had been talking in the lesson so much that the teacher had decided to keep them in as a punishment, forcing them to do the work in silence for 15 minutes.

Lucy had wanted to tell them about what had happened with Laxus, but when she was about to tell them, Erza flashed her a warning look and shook her head, and so Lucy had decided to stay silent, although she planned on asking Erza why she didn't want them to know.

The four spent the whole of lunch together. At first they headed outside into the courtyard and just talked. With Erza around, Natsu and Gray didn't fight much.

However, Erza then remembered that she had promised to take Lucy on a tour and so the four set off on a trip around the school, in which Erza talked about the rooms, with Natsu adding 'funny' remarks every now and then, before apologizing when Erza inevitably glared at him, not finding Natsu's comments very witty at all, especially when they were interrupting one of her monologues. Gray was mostly quiet, only occasionally adding to Erza's explanations.

Lunch seemed to pass by really quickly, and the last lesson of the day was P.E., which both Lucy's year and the year above did together. Lucy wasn't too enthusiastic about P.E., as she had never been one for sports.

Erza, on the other hand, was especially fired up. P.E. wasn't mixed and was separate for boys and girls. The first thing they had to do was a run, something which Lucy definitely wasn't thrilled about. Erza had insisted on running with Lucy, shouting encouragement every time Lucy slowed down. When Lucy had eventually given up and started walking, Erza gave her a long lecture about dedication and commitment, eventually inspiring Lucy to break into a slow jog.

After the run, they went inside into the sports hall, which was split in the middle, with boys in one half and the girls in the other. They boys were playing soccer, while the girls were playing hockey.

Lucy, not really bothered about the game, hung back in defence. She was worried that Erza might come back and give her a telling off, but Erza appeared to have gotten into competitive mode, and was too concerned with scoring at one end of the pitch to worry about Lucy at the other end.

So Lucy spent the time watching the boys' soccer match. Natsu and Gray were on the same team, something which was amusing to watch as both were playing upfront but refused to pass to each other. On the other team, the boy with the iron studs, Gajeel, was defending against Natsu, and the two were really competitive about it, the ball seeming to end up in a tussle between those two more often than not. Weirdly, Jellal and Laxus, who Lucy now knew were seniors like Erza, weren't playing, but were standing at the sidelines watching the match carefully. Lucy wondered why they were exempt from playing.

"You're bored too, huh?"

Lucy turned around, surprised, not even noticing that a short girl with blue hair had walked up to her. Lucy seemed to remember her being in her class in the morning, but she couldn't quite remember. "I guess. I'm not really a big fan of hockey."

The blue haired girl snorted, stood next to Lucy and stared intently at the ball on the boy's side, which was currently in Gray's possession. "That makes two of us. I just play back here so that I don't have to do anything. With Erza up there, the ball never seems to come over here."

Lucy giggled. "Yeah, I noticed that. I'm Lucy."

"Levy. We're in the same form. I was sitting in the front, on the other side of Cana." Lucy nodded. So she was in her class in the morning.

"Hey," a familiar voice grunted. Lucy watched as Cana approached the two, looking more than a little disgruntled. Levy smiled teasingly at her.

"Tired Cana?"

Cana shook her head, running her hands through her hair. "Hockey's too much effort. Dunno how Erza has so much energy for it..."

"Mind if I join you guys?" Lucy, Levy and Cana turned around, and to Lucy's extreme surprise, it was Mirajane, the beautiful white haired girl from earlier, standing there. She and Levy exhanged a familiar smile, whilst Cana gave her a half-hearted nod in greeting. She then turned to Lucy, and smiled sweetly, holding out her hand. "Hi, I'm Mirajane."

Lucy clumsily shook it, surprised that someone like Mirajane, whom Lucy already genuinely respected without even having spoken with her, was talking to her. "I-I'm Lucy."

"You were with Natsu and Gray in the morning, weren't you?"

Lucy nodded. Mirajane smiled kindly at her, before also turning to the boy's soccer match. Looks like Mirajane wasn't one for sports either. The four stood there in silence, Mirajane occasionally giggling when Natsu swore at either Gajeel and Gray, or when either of the two swore back. Suddenly, Erza approached the girls, looking pissed off.

Mirajane smiled playfully at her. "What happened?"

Erza scowled at the ground. "Miss Bisca told me to go back and play in defence for a bit. Apparently I'm getting 'too heated up'."

Mirajane, Levy and Cana laughed, whilst Lucy giggled. Erza glared at them. "Shut up! You know Mira, you shouldn't laugh, you used to be just as bad as me!"

Levy nodded. "Yeah, that was before-" She suddenly stopped and looked over to Mira, who was staring down at the ground, no longer smiling. Levy and Erza glanced at each other, silently deciding to drop the subject, whilst Cana looked away from Mirajane. Lucy didn't understand, but decided against asking why.

A small silence, awkward rather than comfortable, then descended over the group, who watched the boys' game, with Erza barking at Natsu and Gray every time they messed up, causing them to mess up even more.

It was then that Lucy spotted Laxus and Jellal again, who were now talking, whilst glancing over at the game. She looked at Mirajane. "Why are those two guys just watching the game?"

"They play for the first team," Mirajane explained. "Laxus is the captain, and Jellal the Vice-captain. I think this game is a preliminary trial for joining the team, and so they don't need to play. Plus, it's their job to select who they think should take part in further trials for the team. I guess that's easier if they're just watching rather than playing."

Lucy nodded, noting that Erza had perked up slightly when Mirajane had said Jellal's name. She smiled slightly and nudged Erza. "hmm?"

"Erza... is there something between you and Jellal?"

Erza's face went bright red, and she shook her head frantically. "N-no, why would you say that?"

Mirajane giggled. "Erza, don't lie. Everyone knows that you like him."

Cana rolled her eyes. "Everyone but him..."

Erza frantically shook her head, turning away from them, trying to hide her flushed face. "I-I don't! He's just a good friend, that's all!"

Mirajane placed a hand on her shoulder. "Erza..."

"That's all," Erza firmly grunted, shaking Mirajane's hand off, and shooting a 'don't you dare' glare at her.

Lucy giggled quietly, and looked at Mirajane, who also had an amused smile on her face. They exchanged a knowing glance, which only meant one thing.

They were definitely going to do something about this.

######

"After you, Miss Lucy."

Lucy smiled at Caprico as if to say thanks, before stepping into the entrance hall, Caprico closing the door behind her. Despite her initial worries, Lucy had left P.E. very happy.

She had initially been nervous to be around Mirajane, someone who was clearly a big deal within the school. But Mirajane was really kind and friendly and the two chatted amiably throughout the whole lesson, whilst Levy and Cana watched more quietly, and Erza, not giving up on trying to improve Natsu and Gray's performance, was barking orders at the two whenever they got the ball.

After getting changed, Lucy, Erza, Levy, Cana and Mirajane found Natsu, Gray and Gajeel waiting for them outside the changing rooms. All three had made it through the preliminary rounds and had advanced to the final trials, which were to be held next week. Erza, of course, claimed it was because of her involvement that Natsu and Gray improved enough to impress Laxus and Jellal, but Lucy suspected that it was despite Erza's 'help' that the two got through rather than because of it.

Natsu had suggested that they all went to the park to hang out, since they were all together, but Erza, Mirajane and Levy had a student council meeting and Gajeel had a guitar lesson, something which surprised Lucy who really hadn't seen him as the musical type. Cana was also staying behind to meet her father, who was apparently a teacher at the school.

Lucy wanted to go with Natsu and Gray, but remembered that she had promised Caprico that she would meet him at 4:00 sharp. She didn't want to waste any time, because she knew that if she was even a minute late, Caprico would send a search party out for her. Which proved to be the case, because when she had reached the car at exactly 4:03, she had seen Caprico pacing around outside the car, frantically talking into the phone, probably to Virgo.

The look of relief on his face when he saw Lucy was priceless, and as soon as they were in the car, without even setting off, Caprico began to bombard Lucy with questions, most of them about what had happened that had made her those three minutes late.

Lucy didn't mind though. She knew Caprico was very protective of her, and she was glad for it. She apologized for being late, and answered all of Caprico's question about the day, and even gave him a full account of the day when he asked for it, wisely omitting the incident with Laxus in the cafeteria.

Virgo then emerged from the kitchen. She had on some oven gloves, meaning that she had probably just finished cooking dinner. "You're back Princess. How was your day?"

Lucy looked around, before smiling at the sight of Plue asleep on the sofa. She lifted him into her arms, the sickly puppy waking up and yipping lightly at her. Lucy smiled at Virgo. "It was great thanks."

Virgo bowed slightly, before turning back into the kitchen. "That's good news. Dinner will be ready soon Princess."

Lucy nodded and smiled once more at Caprico, who was dithering in the entrance hall, as if he was waiting to be dismissed. When he smiled back, she began to climb up the stairs, taking her schoolbag and Plue with her. She nudged her room door open with her elbow, trying to balance Plue in her arms as she did that. When she was in, she placed Plue gently on her bed, before turning to her desk. She placed her bag down on it, before emptying the contents of the bulging satchel onto the wooden surface.

She sighed as she eyed the surprisingly heavy workload on her table. Even if this seemed like a great school, there definitely were draw backs.

Lucy sighed as she plopped down on her desk and began flicking through her maths text book, her mind only partially on the work, but mostly already thinking about tomorrow. She couldn't wait to get back into school.

**The ending's a bit meh, but it does the job (hopefully?)**

**So what do you think? A lot of new characters introduced here, and it will be really interesting to see how you guys feel about what's happened. Like before, I'd really encourage you to leave a review, even if it just is a line or two, as any bit of feedback/praise (mostly praise ;) ) means a lot to me, and if I'm getting a lot of reviews, it does keep me extra motivated to keep uploading chapters. If I can get three reviews again, I'd be absolutely delighted. Like it would genuinely make my weekend. No joke (I'm a pretty sad person). **

**Anyway, I really struggle in keeping these author's notes short, so I'm gonna try and end it here. Thanks for reading, and please review/favorite/follow!**


	3. Natsu and Laxus

**Before we start here, I just want to say that I am amazed. Absolutely amazed. When I uploaded chapter 2, the story was on 3 reviews. Its on 12 now as I'm writing this. That's the best any of my stories has ever done after two chapters, which is absolutely incredible. Thank you guys so much for this, I'm so delighted that everyone seems to really like this story, and I really hope you continue to enjoy it. I can't thank you guys enough for your support at this stage, I'm so incredibly grateful.**

**Now this chapter is up a couple of days later than I would have liked. So sorry about that, but I am super busy at the moments guys. I'm working Monday to Friday at the moment, and I had a football tournament on Sunday. Nothing serious, just a five a side with some friends, but it did pretty much take away my Sunday. This chapter would have been up at the weekend had it not been for all that. I'm hoping that I can get the next chapter up next week, but no promises. **

**Someone was also asking about pairings in a review. They seemed to be under the impression that Jerza would be the only pairing, but that's not true at all, there will be quite a lot more pairings. As for which ones, well... you'll just have wait and see ;) They should become clear soon enough though.**

**And one last thing, I'm not done with my One Piece story, people seem to be really worried about that. I just want to work on this for a few more weeks, maybe for the rest of the summer, and then I'll return to that. I'm really enjoying writing this story and its kind of rekindling my love for fanfiction which I felt was on the wane before the break from this site I took for revision. **

**But once again, thank you all so much for your support, it would be incredible if we can keep getting the same number of reviews as we have been getting.**

Lucy darted out of her bedroom before quickly hopping down the stairs. Weirdly, she found herself inwardly chuckling at the situation she had found herself in, it was actually kind of ironic.

You see, it was Monday morning, a week since her first day at Fairy Tail High, and just like on that first day, she had overslept, however this time she had ignored her alarm rather than forgot to set it. Basically, the end result was that she was running late. Again.

Overall, the last week had been fairly enjoyable for her. Lucy had never struggled academically and, after just one week, seemed to have already established herself in pretty much all of her classes as one of the brightest and most hardworking students.

Outside of lessons, Lucy spent most of her time with Natsu, Gray and Erza, and Lucy felt happy that they seemed to have accepted her into their little social group. They spent every break and a couple of lunchtimes together. The time was usually spent with either Natsu or Erza recounting some exciting encounter from earlier in the day, or sharing some juicy gossip. For example, one day, Natsu had giddily told them that he had seen Gajeel checking Levy out, although both Gray and Erza had dismissed this, saying that the two were completely incompatible. Even Lucy found it hard to imagine the two together. Either way, Lucy enjoyed these little 'gossip sessions', as she felt like she was learning things about her classmates, a lot of whom she still hadn't really gotten to know properly.

When Lucy wasn't with those three, she also found herself spending a lot of time with Levy, who she found she had a lot in common with. On Wednesday When Natsu and Gray were busy with detention and Erza had student council, Lucy had found Levy in the school library. Lucy loved reading, and so the library seemed like the natural place to go for her. However, she was delighted to find someone in Levy that loved reading just as much if not even more than she did. The two spent the whole of lunch together, forgetting to eat completely, and Levy recommended several books to Lucy. That evening, Lucy planned to read a couple of chapters of the first book, but was so hooked on Levy's books that she completely read the first book cover to cover and made a sizable dent in the second book.

Lucy was also delighted by the amount of time she had spent with Mirajane. Ever since the first day, Lucy always seemed to catch Mirajane in the corridor at least once every day and on these occasions, Mirajane insisted on stopping Lucy and having a small chat. On Thursday, Mirajane had lunch with her, Natsu, Gray and Erza, and on Friday, the two had spent the whole of lunch together without those three as Natsu and Gray had detention (again) and Erza had hockey training. Lucy found that she already really looked up to Mirajane, who she saw as smart, beautiful and kind, everything she wanted to be.

The problem with spending time with Mirajane was that this attracted attention from her younger brother, Elfman. Occasionally, Lucy would just be wandering around in the corridors when Elfman would suddenly appear and make some sort of comment about how it took a real man to be friends with his sister or how much of a man his big sister was. Lucy quickly realized that Elfman's comments didn't really make sense, but it seemed like Elfman liked her, so she just usually politely smiled and nodded in 'agreement'. The problem was when sometimes Mirajane and Lucy would be talking, and then Elfman would just suddenly appear out of nowhere and not even join the conversation but just observe completely silently, as if he was testing her or something like that. It was a little off-putting for Lucy but Mira never seemed affected by it, which seemed to suggest that she was used to it.

However the past week hadn't been smooth sailing for Lucy. One of her main problems was the whole situation with Juvia, who was the downside of spending lots of time with Gray. With every lunchtime or break time she spent with him, Natsu and Erza, Juvia seemed to hate her even more, and Maths became extremely uncomfortable for Lucy. Every time she looked up from her work, she'd see Juvia glaring at her, sometimes mouthing the words 'love rival'. That being said, she did feel somewhat bad for the blue haired girl. Gray seemed to completely ignore her, and Lucy wondered whether he even knew Juvia Lockser existed.

And then there was the less annoying but far more threatening issue of Laxus. Lucy was especially afraid of what would happen if she ran into him again whilst she was on her own, no Erza, Jellal or anyone to protect her.

When she had asked Erza why she didn't want Natsu and Gray to know about what had happened in the cafeteria that day with Laxus, Erza had told her that if Natsu or Gray found out, they'd want to fight Laxus, a fight which neither of them could win. However what surprised Lucy even more was when Erza told her that Natsu especially admired Laxus and looked up to him as a sort of role model. This initially made Lucy feel angry, and little betrayed, but Erza explained that Natsu didn't talk to Laxus much any more, and so didn't know about the way Laxus treated other students. All Natsu really knew about him was how we was when he was younger and that he was the school's sporting hero. This was another reason why Erza didn't want Natsu specifically to know about what Laxus had done that day. She didn't want to ruin Natsu's idealistic vision of him.

Lucy didn't understand what Erza meant when she said that Natsu only knew how Laxus was when he was younger so Erza told her that Laxus didn't used to be the way he was, and used to be a kind but slightly quiet and perhaps awkward boy who genuinely cared for his friends. But that all changed around half a year ago and his personality shift coincided with his father allegedly getting arrested, although Laxus didn't talk about it (not that anyone dared to ask) and so no one knew much about it. Since then, Laxus completely stopped interacting with Natsu and the others and instead spent all his time with Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen, who seemed to almost worship Laxus, they were so fiercely loyal to him.

Lucy also was surprised to find out that Laxus was the grandson of the School's principal, Makarov, who she was still yet to meet. She couldn't help but wonder whether the principal knew about Laxus' behavior, or simply just turned a blind eye to it. It would be understandable in the circumstances and it would explain how Laxus seemed to be able to do what he wanted.

Lucy shook her head, trying to clear her head of these thoughts. She didn't have time to waste now worrying about Laxus, she needed to get a move on. She jumped the last three steps at once as usual, but noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Sitting in an armchair in the living room was a familiar figure, but not one that Lucy expected to be there. Her eyes widened, as she fully entered the living room, the figure of this man in full view now.

"F-Father?"

######

This was it.

Natsu grinned, pedaling faster, just wanting to get to school as soon as possible. That was why he had gone to bed a couple of hours early last night, woken up half an hour early today, and even then gotten out of the house a full hour earlier than usual.

You see, it's rare for Natsu Dragneel of all pupils to want to be in school, let alone be in school early. So why was he making such an effort?

It was Monday, a week after the first day, but more importantly for him, a week after the first stage of the soccer team trials.

Fairy Tail High School's soccer team was its pride and joy. They had won their region's Championships last year and boasted some of the best players in the country at School-level.

But more importantly, Soccer was Natsu's favorite sport. He had played it ever since he was just a little kid. For years he had played for the school team at all levels, but now that he was a High School Junior, he finally had the opportunity to play for the School's main team. Today was the day of the second stage of the trials, after which the first team squad would be selected.

Honestly, it didn't actually matter at what time Natsu reached school that morning, the trials were after school. But he was so pumped that that thought didn't even occur to him. All he knew was today was a big day, and he just wanted to be in school then and there.

He had spent the whole summer training with Magnolia's local Sunday League team. He had trained extra hard, nearly every single day, wanting nothing more than to play for the first team. That was all he wanted.

Ever since that day...

######

_"Laxus!"_

_Laxus Dreyar turned around at the sound of his name, stopping just outside the school gates. The front of the school was mostly empty at this time, nearly 6pm. School was over, and had been for a good couple of hours but there had been a school soccer match after school, and so he'd had to stay to play in that. The school couldn't perform without it's star player after all. _

_Standing behind him, in the now empty courtyard, a little bit back, was a familiar pink haired boy. He was panting heavily, which suggested that he had been running, presumably to catch up to him._

_Laxus slung his bag over his shoulder, feeling it starting to slip down. "Natsu? What do you want?"_

_Natsu smiled his usual toothy grin, running up to Laxus. "You played awesome today! Like even better than usual! And that goal was so amazing! You gotta tell me, how d'ya hit the ball like that? I'm all fired up now, come on, let's go the the park and play, one-on-one-"_

_Laxus smirked. Natsu must have stayed after school and watched the game, like he always did. He was literally the team's 'twelfth man'."Not now, I'm tired. I had a long day of school, and then I had to play that match. I'm going home to take a nap..."_

_Natsu glared at him, pouting like a child who wasn't getting his way. "What? Come on, don't be so lazy..."_

_Laxus laughed heartily, causing Natsu to glare at him. "What the hell's so funny!? You're just scared, cuz you're school's best player, and if I beat you, that makes me the best, aren't you!?"_

_Laxus turned away from Natsu, rolling his eyes, winding up the pink haired boy even more. "Yeah, that's definitely it..."_

_"No!" Natsu shouted, running around Laxus so that he was standing in front of him. "Right now, let's play!"_

_Laxus stepped around him and continued walking, still chuckling lightly to himself. Natsu glared at his back, before Laxus suddenly stopped, an idea coming to him. "OK, we'll play... but not now."_

_Natsu blinked. "But... when?"_

_Laxus turned his head so that he was looking at Natsu, and smirked in a challenging way. "I don't just give matches to anyone. We'll play when you're in the school team too. When that day comes, then you can play against me, and then we'll see who's the better player. Whoever wins is the school's best player. Deal?"_

_Natsu brought his fist and palm together, meeting Laxus' smirk with his own. "Deal! I'll kick your ass!"_

######

Natsu smirked, increasing his speed even more, the school now coming into sight. The courtyard was deserted, a usual sight for Natsu Dragneel in the mornings, but this time because he was early rather than late.

"Laxus... Today's the day! Damn, I'm so fired up right now..."

######

Jude Heartfilia looked up at his startled daughter. "Ah, Lucy. I'm glad that I'm not too late."

Lucy opened her mouth, trying to form a sentence, or even just some words. After a couple of failed tries, she just ran up to her father, who remained slouching on the armchair, and threw her arms around his neck. Jude stiffened before relaxing, feeling somewhat comfortable in this admittedly unusual position. It wasn't often his daughter hugged him. But it wasn't often he was even around her.

Lucy pulled away from him, positively beaming. Jude was usually never home, always away on business trips, or meetings, or whatever important arrangements he had. He had completely missed Lucy's first week, away in some exotic country on some lucrative business.

"Y-you're back! But when? And why are you up so early?

Jude couldn't help but smirk slightly, his daughter's happiness rubbing off on him. "Just last night, midnight. And why am I up so early? Isn't it obvious? I wanted to catch you before you left for school. How is it by the way?"

"It's great, thank you."

Jude nodded slightly, before looking more serious and eyeing her carefully. "And there aren't any problems? You must tell Caprico if anything is wrong..."

Lucy shook her head dismissively, still smiling widely, "No, No, it's fine. It's perfect really, I'm really really enjoying it."

Jude stared levelly at her for a second, as if trying to see if the words were genuine. When satisfied they were, he relaxed and leaned back in his chair. His lips twitched slightly, before he caught himself and maintained his neutral expression. He didn't smile, not him. He sat thoughtful for a second, before finally speaking.

"That's good to hear."

Lucy frowned, a little disappointed. She had been expecting... more. "Oh... well it's great seeing you again! If you're still home when I get back, maybe we can talk some more."

Jude shifted his gaze from his daughter to the ground. "I'm not sure if that will be possible. I might have a meeting tonight."

Lucy's face sagged slightly, not that Jude saw. "Oh. Well, if you can, I'd love to talk to you. I really miss you a lot when you're away... Da- Father."

Jude nodded, although it didn't seem as if he was focusing on her anymore. Lucy sighed quietly, again missed by Jude, and turned around, making her way into the kitchen, remembering that she did have school to get to.

######

Mr Conbolt lazily raised his eyes from his newspaper when he heard the door of the classroom open. He briefly glanced at the new arrival, the first person to arrive that morning, before turning his attention back to the newsprint, not fully registering who had entered. Suddenly he frowned and looked up, his eyes widening when he fully realized who was there.

"N-Natsu? But... You're early! How?"

Natsu smirked, proudly looking around the empty classroom. "I'm the first here? That's awesome, I'm so gonna rub that in Gajeel and Droopy eyes' face!"

Mr Conbolt rolled his eyes. Early for the first time ever, and all he could think about was annoying Gray and Gajeel. He returned to his reading material, whilst Natsu took his seat, still grinning. "Yeah, well, good job, I guess..."

The next twenty minutes dragged on extremely slowly for Mr Conbolt and Natsu. It didn't take long for the novelty of being the first one to arrive to wear off for Natsu, and he quickly became bored. Because of that, he took out his Maths book from his bag and began tearing out pages and turning them into paper planes. At first this didn't annoy Mr Conbolt, but it was when Natsu began testing these planes out, and one narrowly missed the teacher's eye, that Mr Conbolt was forced to take action, confiscating Natsu's books. Kind of ironic considering he had always encouraged Natsu to read outside of lessons.

So Natsu then pulled out a tennis ball from his pocket (Although why he just happened to be carrying this item in his pocket wasn't clear) and began bouncing it against the back wall of the classroom. The regular bumping sound was bearable, but Natsu quickly tired of this, and began trying to throw the ball into the bin at the front of the classroom, right next to Mr Conbolt's desk. Unfortunately, he missed the bin and knocked over a cup of boiling hot coffee on the desk, the scalding hot liquid covering the teacher's desk, and nearly, were it not for his quick reflexes, the now pissed off teacher.

Luckily for Mr Conbolt, after he and an apologetic Natsu had wiped up his desk, the rest of the pupils began to arrive. The last to come in were Gray and Gajeel, who were just as shocked as Mr Conbolt when they saw a grinning Natsu waiting for them at the back of the classroom.

When the bell rang, Mr Conbolt opened his desk and took out the register. He lifted his pen up and counted the number of students in the room, before frowning and recounting them. "It appears that we're one short."

Natsu, who had been having some typically pointless argument with Gajeel, looked up. He scanned the classroom quickly, immediately deducing the identity of the absentee. "Where's Lucy?"

Gajeel snorted, leaning back in his chair. "What, she's late again? Just like last week..."

Gray however, shook his head, looking worried. "That was just on the first day though. She isn't usually late."

Natsu then stood up and made his way to the front of the classroom. "I'm gonna go look for her."

Cana, who had been resting her head on the desk, probably hungover from the weekend, looked up at him. "She could just be ill, you know."

Natsu was about to reply, when Levy spoke. "I don't think so, I talked to her last night. She didn't say she had a cold or anything and she sounded completely fine."

Natsu opened the door. "Something doesn't feel right. I'll be back soon."

######

"Oh, it's you again."

Lucy consciously took a step back. Standing in front of her was the last person she wanted to see. Towering over her, surrounded by the same three lackeys as before, was a scowling Laxus Dreyar.

Despite her best efforts, the time Lucy had spent talking to her father plus the time she lost by oversleeping meant that she was actually even later than she had been last week, despite the best efforts of Caprico, who must have broken the speed limit at least three times on their relatively short journey.

By the time she had arrived at the school, the outside courtyard was completely deserted, which had caused Lucy to panic even more. If there was no one outside, that meant that everyone was inside, which meant that school had started. Lucy half-expected Natsu to come crashing into her again at that point, not knowing that the pink haired boy was actually one of the first people in the school that morning.

Just as she had been about to enter the school, however, she had heard someone laughing around the back of the building. Therefore she, unwisely, decided to see what the source of the noise was.

Lazing around at the back of the school, was Laxus, with his usual crew of Evergreen, Freed and Bickslow. Laxus was clutching a bottle, some sort of alcohol, Lucy assumed, whilst Bickslow and Evergreen were smoking cigarettes. As soon as he saw her, Laxus put down the bottle and stared straight at Lucy. The four were all silent, clearly annoyed to have been interrupted.

Lucy gulped slightly, before composing herself and staring levelly at Laxus, trying to make herself not seem as afraid as she actually was. It didn't work though, as Laxus playfully raised an eyebrow at her, showing that she wasn't fooling him.

He shoved both his hands into his pockets and moved so that he was standing directly in front of her, an inch or so separating the two. Lucy, a good head shorter than Laxus, found that in this position, she was staring directly at his chest. She knew what Laxus was doing, he was trying to make himself look as imposing as possible.

And it was definitely working.

Suddenly, he brought his thumb up and brushed the bottom of Lucy's lip. At his touch, Lucy inhaled sharply, and Laxus grinned. "Hey now, no need to be so tense..."

Lucy pulled away from him, a little more forcefully than intended, for a second forgetting just who she was dealing with. "No," She firmly said.

Laxus tensed and his grin disappeared. He stared at Lucy, a neutral expression on his face. Freed, Evergreen and Bickslow were all still silent, just watching the two. Laxus stepped forward, closing the space between the two.

"That's not how things work around here. You see, this is my school. If there's something I want..." He forcefully jerked Lucy's chin upwards so that she was staring directly into his now cold eyes, all playfulness drained from them. "... **I take it.**"

Lucy stared hopelessly into his eyes. What could she do? She tried to turn her head, to search for some way of escaping, but Laxus' hand was firmly gripping her chin. She was completely hopeless. Unless...

Suddenly, she lifted her knee up, and brought her heel down on Laxus' much larger foot. Laxus grunted in pain, and staggered backwards slightly, giving Lucy the opportunity she needed to fully pull away from him. Before he had a chance to recover, she tried to run around the corner of the school. Nobody could see what was going on around the back of the school. Maybe if she made it to the front of the building, even if she was caught, someone would see them.

However, just then, Evergreen stood in her way, smiling teasingly at Lucy. "My, my, looks like you've got a fire." Bickslow chuckled slightly, whilst Freed was staring at the ground, as if he didn't want to see what was happening. Lucy couldn't help but wonder just how much he enjoyed Laxus' activities. When he noticed her looking at him, he looked up at her, and gave her a grim, seemingly apologetic look.

But Lucy didn't have time to ponder the implications of that look. It was then that she realized that Laxus had recovered from her 'attack' and was now standing behind her. She turned around.

Big Mistake. Laxus seized her chin in his left hand, and forcefully grabbed her arm with the other one, squeezing hard. Lucy winced as his sharp nails dug into her soft flesh. However to Lucy's surprise, he was smirking. "How sneaky... you're more than you appear. Definitely my kind of girl."

"Please..." Lucy whimpered. "I...I..."

Laxus leaned in with his face. "**No.**" He parted her lips with his thumb, Lucy powerless at this point.

Just then, Lucy felt herself pulled from behind, forcefully yanked away from Laxus' grip. Lucy didn't have time to register what had happened, when her savior placed himself between her and Laxus, glaring heatedly at the muscular boy. Lucy smiled relievedly at the back of the familiar pink haired boy, feeling tears of relief and happiness well up in her eyes.

"N-Natsu!"

**I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually quite nervous. If feel that this is a chapter which a lot of you could hate or not really find interesting, and I'm not sure at all how you guys are going to take it. **

**But, of course, I hope you guys do enjoy it and leave some nice reviews. I don't really like to set review targets, but I'd just urge anyone reading to leave a review, they really do motivate me.**

**Also, it may not seem like it, but I am a big Laxus fan, so its not like I'm being really mean to him in the way I'm writing him because I hate him or anything like that. He is genuinely one of my favorites. **

**Oh, and as always, thanks for reading. **


	4. The Team Sheet

**From what I could tell from last chapter's reviews, you guys are really looking forward to this one. I'm sorry if this chapter isn't up as soon as you would have liked, but the weather over here in England is great, and I spent most of my weekend playing soccer(we call it football here), which is actually kind of linked with this chapter in a way I guess. Either way, the whole Natsu vs Laxus thing has got you guys pumped up, which is exactly what I wanted. **

**Which brings me onto my next point. We got 6 reviews for the last chapter which was exactly what I was hoping for, so let's keep it up guys! Your enthusiasm for this story is amazing, and it's really keeping me going tbh and I really can't thank you enough for that.**

**Apparently there were a few grammatical errors in the last chapter. I'm really sorry about that, and I absolutely promise to check over my work much better for future chapters. I know when I read a story and see lots of grammatical errors, I feel a little put off, so I'm really sorry about that. If there are grammatical errors, can you please tell me where these errors are in either a review or a PM(preferably a PM please)? I'd love to be able to correct them quickly without having to completely comb over the whole chapter carefully. Don't feel like you're being mean if you PM me several sentences which I need to correct, in the end its for the benefit of the story that these mistakes are corrected, and it should also ensure that I don't make those same mistakes again. (I really struggle with commas actually, like I've said, English is not my best subject.)**

**I think those are all the points I need to make so there's nothing left to say other than enjoy the chapter!**

Natsu tilted his head to the side slightly so that he was looking at Lucy. "Hey.. you OK?"

Lucy nodded gratefully. "Th-thank you... if you hadn't come..."

Natsu smirked, turning around fully. He took both of Lucy's arms and smiled cheerfully at her. "Don't worry. If you're ever in trouble, you can always count on me!"

"And just what would you do?"

Natsu instantly whipped his head around and glared straight at Laxus, who was smirking cockily. "Laxus... just what the hell were you doing to her...?"

Laxus didn't appear intimidated at all, just maintaining the same smug grin. "None of your business... 'big man'_._"

Natsu gritted his teeth, whilst Laxus just seemed to be enjoying the whole situation. Natsu's arrival didn't seem to concern him at all. It was then that Lucy remembered what Erza had told her, about how Natsu looked up to and admired Laxus. Seeing what Natsu had just seen must have really hurt him. Lucy lightly placed her hand on the angry boy's shoulder. "Natsu..."

Natsu didn't turn around, still completely focused on Laxus. "Of course it's my business you bastard... Lucy's my friend, how dare you try that..."

Laxus stepped forward, causing Natsu to instinctively stretch his arms backwards so that they were shielding Lucy from his view. "And just what are you going to do about it?"

Natsu didn't reply, instead turning again to Lucy. "Lucy... get out of here. You need to get to class and tell Mr Conbolt about this. If you can't find him, get Gray, Gajeel, or even Erza or Mira if you can."

"Natsu, but-"

Natsu smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'll be fine on my own. Just go, this isn't safe-"

That was as far as he got before Laxus closed the space between the two. Natsu stepped forward and swung at Laxus, giving Lucy space and time to get away. He swung his right arm at the much larger student, who dodged it and punched him firmly in the stomach, causing Natsu to stumble backwards.

Lucy, paralyzed with fear, remained where she was. There hadn't been fights or anything like this at her old school. She had never been in this situation before, she had never felt so afraid of another student. Even though Natsu had told her to get away as fast as she could, she just couldn't. She couldn't move or speak, she was simply too terrified.

Laxus then made for her, but Natsu picked himself up from the ground and delivered a sharp uppercut to the spiky haired boy's chin, sending him tumbling backwards into the wall. Bickslow and Evergreen looked like they were about to join in, but they were stopped by Freed, who told them not to interfere.

Laxus let out a loud gasp, he sure felt that one. He looked up and grinned widely at Natsu, who just continued to glare at him, not allowing himself to be scared and most certainly not allowing Laxus to see any fear on his part. Lucy, on the other hand, whimpered, terrified. Laxus' face at that point was the kind of face that would give children nightmares. Hell, it would probably give her trouble sleeping tonight. Laxus hoisted his body up, at first holding onto the wall for support, but then letting go and standing on his own. "Natsu... you're dead. You shouldn't have got involved with this."

Natsu didn't back down or hesitate, instead charging at Laxus and wildly throwing another punch. Laxus caught it and, with his other hand, delivered a powerful, crushing blow to Natsu's jaw which sent him practically flying backwards. Lucy moved then, catching him just as he was about to crash to the ground. Laxus grinned. "You've been buffing up, haven't you Natsu? Doesn't matter though, you're still nothing compared to me."

Natsu growled and forced himself up, not looking back at Lucy, his attention completely focused on his opponent. He charged Laxus again, just as before, but Laxus simply knocked him down again with another blow to the jaw, pretty much identical to the first one. He laughed sadistically, it seemed like he was really enjoying this. "Man, you don't learn, do you?"

Lucy immediately ran to Natsu's side. She glared up at Laxus, her fear replaced by burning anger. "Stop it! Why are you doing this, what did he do to you?! Natsu looks up to you, you're his hero, how could you-"

"Shut it," Laxus barked, stopping her mid-flow. He was glaring down at her. "I don't care about any of that. I don't need any weak runts liking me."

"Lucy..." Natsu coughed, reaching up to weakly grasp her collar. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to..."

Lucy wrapped her fingers around his hand, clutching it firmly, tears flowing freely from her face now. "Natsu..." Erza was right, this really was a fight that Natsu couldn't win. And here he was fighting it, being beaten to the ground, because of her. Why was he going so far? Why would he go so far... just for her?

"And just what is going on here?"

The tense, threatening atmosphere was instantly shattered and everyone turned in the direction of the voice, one which Lucy didn't recognize. Standing behind Laxus was a tiny old man, barely up to Laxus' chest in height. He had a grey mustache and short spiky gray hair. He stared sternly at Laxus for a good few seconds, before walking past him and kneeling at Natsu's side. He stared softly at the hurt boy for a few seconds, suggesting some kind of fondness on his part, before looking back at Laxus with that same stern expression as before.

"I asked you a question."

Laxus chuckled, again seeming unthreatened by the new arrival. "What's it to ya, old man-"

"Cut the tough guy act, it won't work on me. Don't think that you're allowed to do as you please here, I won't tolerate it. Go to my office now and we'll discuss your punishment." The old man then turned to Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen. "As for you three... get to class now. You have detention during lunch with Mr Mine."

Laxus glared at the old man for second before nodding begrudgingly and turning away, setting off in the direction of the school, Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen close behind. When they had gone, the old man turned his attention back to Natsu and Lucy.

Natsu grinned at him. "Great timing Gramps..."

Lucy's eyes widened. Gramps? Then that must mean... "Are you the principal?"

The old man looked at Lucy, as if noticing her for the first time. However, as soon as he noticed her...

"Yes, I'm Principal Makarov, at your service Miss. Since I don't recognize you, you must be the new girl, Lucy." He then grinned widely, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I hope you don't mind me saying, but that's quite a figure you have..."

Lucy's jaw dropped and she stared incredulously at the grinning old man. Was the principal of her new school... checking her out?

Natsu laughed, finding Lucy's expression especially amusing. "Jeez, you're such a pervert gramps..."

Principal Makarov glared at him, playfully smacking him on the arm. "Shut it, you should know better than to talk to your principal like that!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever old-timer..."

"Show some respect for you elders you brat!"

Lucy giggled as Natsu and the Principal continued to childishly bicker, Makarov's elbow digging into Natsu's cheek, whilst Natsu was tugging on his mustache. Both of them were doing this with wide grins on their faces.

This was certainly an interesting student-teacher relationship.

######

As a result of the whole scuffle with Laxus, Natsu and Lucy were late for their first lesson of the day, Biology. Fortunately, Principal Makarov accompanied the two to the classroom and explained to the teacher, Mr Wakaba Mine, that the two had a good reason for being late and further action was not required on his part.

Biology was one of Lucy's favorite lessons. Firstly, because it was one of her strongest subjects, probably second to English. Were she not so determined to become an author, Lucy could easily see herself pursuing a career in Science or even medicine.

But the second and perhaps more important reason was her table. The Biology classroom was split into three six seater tables, the tables hexagon shaped. Lucy loved her table, which was situated at the back of the classroom in the far corner, furthest away from the teacher's desk. She sat with Levy on her left and Natsu on her right, with Gray next to him, Cana next to him, and Gajeel taking the last spot on the table between Cana and Levy.

This meant that the atmosphere on their table was usually very relaxed, apart from when Natsu, Gray and Gajeel were at each other's throats. Lucy and Levy were both able to get the work done very quickly and easily, and when they were done, Natsu and Gajeel respectively copied their work. Gray and Cana refused to copy but weren't as smart as Lucy or Levy, and so ended up finishing their work quite a bit after the other four.

The biology lesson was pretty standard. The whole lesson was basically Mr Mine explaining something about the kidney to the class, which was pretty boring. Nonetheless Lucy paid attention as she always did, whilst Levy at her side made thorough notes throughout the lecture. Natsu dozed off halfway through, giving Gajeel, who obviously wasn't paying attention, an opportunity to deface his notes. Gray and Cana spent the whole time chatting quietly, as they usually did. Lucy couldn't help but wonder whether there was something going on between the two.

After that was break. As soon as the bell rang, Natsu's eyes shot open, and he was the first out of the classroom. You see, it was at break that the team sheets for the trial after school were being put up, and so Natsu was especially eager to see who he'd be playing alongside that night, but more eager to see who he'd be playing against.

######

"Ready?"

Lucy looked up at the classroom's doorway, where Gray was waiting for her. She clumsily stacked her books before scooping them up. She smiled up at Gray, struggling to keep a hold of the messy pile. "Ready."

Gray rolled his eyes, smirking, and went back into the classroom. In a swift motion, he took the books off Lucy and tucked them under his arm with his own books. Lucy opened her mouth in protest, but Gray dismissed her with a wave of his hand, as if to say 'it's nothing'. Lucy pouted playfully, not too happy with being babied, causing Gray to chuckle and mutter 'cute'.

Since Natsu had abandoned them after Biology, the walk back to the lockers was a lot quieter than usual as, without the pink haired boy, there was no one for Gray to constantly bicker with. Gajeel, Levy and Cana had all left the classroom soon after Natsu, whereas Lucy had stayed behind to ask Mr Mine a question about the work. She hadn't asked Gray to wait for her but he did anyway, as she expected.

After dumping their books in their lockers, there wasn't much of break left, but there was still enough time for the two to head to the P.E. department where the team sheets were posted. Although it didn't really matter who was on your team for the trials, it was preferable to have some good players around you. Plus, like Natsu, Gray was also hoping that he would get to play against someone challenging like Laxus or Jellal. Of course, the main thing for him was that he wasn't on the same team as Natsu. Now that would be a disaster.

However when they reached the team sheets, there was a small crowd of people they knew surrounding the board, even people who had no business with the soccer team. In the front of the crowd was Natsu, who was staring at a piece of paper pinned on the notice board, presumably the team sheet. What was surprising was his expression. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. Next to him was Jellal, who didn't look shocked as such, but had a sad, resigned expression on his face. Around them were Erza, Gajeel, Mirajane, Elfman, Cana, and Levy, none of whom were looking particularly happy. Erza and Gajeel especially looked extremely pissed.

Gray and Lucy exchanged a worried glance, before approaching the group. Gray tried to peer over their shoulders, but couldn't see what was written on the paper. "Uh guys... what's up?"

Everyone at once turned around, as if they had only just noticed Gray and Lucy. Erza glared at him, although Gray could see she wasn't really angry at him, but was just pissed off in general. She jerked her finger in the direction of the board. "Take a look."

Gray frowned and glanced back at Lucy, who held the same worried expression as him. The two walked up to the board, which Natsu was still obstructing. It didn't seem like he had noticed them at all, as he was still staring at the notice board. Gray expected Natsu to step aside so that he could see what was written there that had gotten everyone so angry, but Natsu didn't move. Mirajane, seeing this, placed her hand on Natsu's shoulder and smiled comfortingly at him. This seemed to snap Natsu out of his daze, and he looked up at Gray and Lucy and smiled weakly at them. He wordlessly stepped aside, giving them the chance to see what was written on the single piece of paper pinned on the notice board.

Gray looked at Natsu once, before turning to the sheet. At first glance, there was nothing amiss. It was the team sheet for the trials after school, as one would expect. He ran through the names on the sheet. Laxus Dreyar, Jellal Fernandes, Gray Fullbuster, Gajeel Redfox...

Gray furrowed his eyebrows and scanned the paper more thoroughly. He looked over the sheet for a good minute, before turning to Jellal. "What is this? Natsu's name's not on here."

Jellal turned so that he was addressing the whole group. "I-I'm sorry. Just now, when we were printing off the team sheet... Laxus decided to remove Natsu from the trials."

Erza glared at him, her anger concentrated on him. "What, he just 'removed' him?! He can't just remove someone for no reason! How could you let him do this?!"

Jellal's gaze dropped down to the ground. He felt helpless. Plus it didn't help that it was Erza of all people who had just told him off. "I... I'm sorry, I can't do anything. Laxus is the captain, it's his decision."

Mirajane nudged Erza on the shoulder, as if to say calm down. She gazed somewhat more gently at the blue haired boy."But why would he do that? What did Natsu ever do to him?"

Jellal shrugged, feeling useless at this point. "I'm... not sure."

Lucy gasped quietly, attracting the attention of Gray. "Lucy?"

Lucy looked up at Natsu, who wasn't looking at her but was now just staring at the ground. "Natsu... I..."

Natsu didn't respond, not lifting his gaze from the ground. Levy tapped Lucy on the shoulder. "Lucy... what happened?"

"This morning Laxus tried to... you know... with me. I wouldn't have been able to stop him, but then Natsu came and saved me."

"What?!" Gray practically shouted. "Where is that bastard, we should-"

"I see," Erza interrupted, giving Gray a stern look which said 'calm down', before turning to Natsu. "So that's Laxus' grudge. How pathetic of him."

Mirajane nodded, looking angry too, much to Lucy's surprise. She had only ever seen a smiling, happy or a comforting, motherly Mirajane. "I agree. I can't believe there's someone like him in our school..."

"Why don't you two go talk to him?" Cana suggested, addressing Erza and Mirajane. "You guys are the heads of the student council, he'd have to listen to you, right?"

It was Jellal who answered, shaking his head. "No, this isn't the responsibility of the student council. The only person who can overrule Laxus is the coach, who's not here today. He left the trials to Laxus, and he entrusted him completely with any decisions to do with picking the squad."

Gajeel glared at him. "But that ain't fair!"

Jellal nodded. "Don't get me wrong, I completely agree. But unfortunately, that's the situation. There's nothing we can do, unless we can change Laxus' mind."

There was a short, awkward silence, before Levy spoke up. "So... someone has to go talk to him?"

"I'll go," Lucy quickly volunteered, a determined look on her face. "If it's because of me that Laxus is doing this to Natsu, then I'll sort out the problems between us."

This finally seemed to grab Natsu's attention. He looked up at Lucy, a concerned look on his face. "Lucy, you don't have to-"

"No," Lucy firmly interrupted, "I created this problem, and I'll solve it."

The whole group exchanged the same nervous look. No one was really happy with this solution. But just then the bell rung, ending any chance of possible discussion as the group were forced to disperse, all heading for their separate lessons.

######

Lucy hadn't enjoyed maths. After volunteering herself to confront Laxus at break, she spent the whole of the lesson dreading the now imminent encounter.

That's not to say she considered backing away from it. In the end, it was because Natsu defended her that Laxus had done what he'd done. Therefore it was her responsibility to resolve this. She was so tense during the lesson that she didn't even register Juvia's usual glares, something which annoyed the blue-haired girl greatly, who was used to unsettling Lucy ever Maths lesson, and actually took great pride in the fact that she was able to get under the skin of the blonde. Of course Lucy was too distracted to register her little 'victory' over Juvia.

After the lesson, she had gone to her locker and put her books away, her usual lunchtime routine. However instead of then looking around for someone to go to the cafeteria with, she made her way outside, heading to the same spot that she had found Laxus that morning, hoping but dreading at the same time that she would find him there again.

And he was there, alone this time, a cigarette sticking out of his mouth, something which especially made Lucy feel uncomfortable. She hated the smell of cigarette smoke, it was a smell she personally linked with death. When Laxus noticed her, he glanced over at her briefly before turning away, staring out onto the sports pitches, which could be seen a little bit in the distance. Lucy blinked, surprised by how he had reacted to her arrival. She stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before he finally took the cigarette out of his mouth. He exhaled slowly. Still not looking at her, he spoke in a low voice,

"You know, for someone who hates me so much, you really can't seem to stay away from me..."

Lucy didn't respond, so Laxus looked over at her and grinned in a mocking way. "So what do you want? Wait, let me guess... Does it have something to do with Natsu by any chance...?"

Lucy, feeling even more angry due to Laxus' attitude, glared at the boy, which only seemed to amuse him even more. "It's not fair. This is a problem between you and me."

Laxus continued to smirk at her, as if he was taunting her. He wasn't taking her seriously at all. "You're right."

Lucy blinked, genuinely surprised. She had not been expecting this to be so easy. "Uh.. really?"

Laxus nodded as he stood up, stretching his arms and yawning loudly. "Yeah. Natsu is a good player. Not as good as me obviously, but still good. Either way, it would be a shame if he misses out for something like this."

Lucy smiled, visibly relieved. Maybe Laxus wasn't as bad as she thought. But just then Laxus turned to her and gave her the same teasing grin. "I'll put his name back on the list, but I want something in return."

Lucy's face fell. "Something in return?"

"Yep. You do me a favor and I'll do you one. Seems fair, right?"

Lucy nodded slowly, although the look on her face told a different story. She couldn't be more against what he had just said. She was almost scared to ask her next question. "And just what do you want...?"

"Well, my... ahem... **offer **from this morning is still open..."

Lucy's jaw literally dropped. She stared, shell-shocked, at Laxus, who was still giving her that same smirk. When she didn't reply, Laxus laughed heartily. "Joking, joking. Jeez, no need to get so worried..."

Lucy partially relaxed. Laxus' smirk then disappeared and he stared at her, looking completely serious. "but I do still want something in return. An apology will do."

"An... apology?"

Laxus nodded, grinning threateningly. "Yep. I don't want Natsu thinking that he can just punch his possible future captain and get away with it. If he wants to even have a chance of being in the team, he's gonna have to beg and beg like a dog for forgiveness..."

When Lucy didn't reply, Laxus stepped past her and began walking off. Lucy stared at his retreating figure for a second, before sighing in relief. One thing's for sure, that could have gone a lot worse.

######

After her meeting with Laxus, Lucy had gone looking for Natsu. After looking around outside and in the cafeteria, she found out from Levy, who she found in the library as usual, that Natsu had to stay behind after maths because he had fallen asleep during the lesson. It would seem that he had snagged himself a detention. Again.

This didn't matter too much though. With Gray and Gajeel definitely participating in the trials that evening, Lucy suspected everyone would be turning out to support them, even Natsu, and so she could tell him about her encounter with Laxus then.

The last lesson of the day was Chemistry, one of Lucy's favorites. However she found it difficult to concentrate throughout the lesson because she was genuinely bubbling with excitement. At her old school she hadn't had many friends, the school's pupils pretty much split into two separate groups when it came to her.

You see, even though Lucy used to attend a prestigious, but more importantly, expensive private school, Jude Heartfilia was in a league of his own when it came to the sheer size of his personal fortune. Most of the students hated Lucy, prejudging her as spoilt and pampered whilst being extremely jealous of the life they assumed she had. Unfortunately for Lucy, there was nothing she could do about this. They had already decided that they weren't going to make any effort to befriend or even get to know her.

Then there were the other students, who kissed up to Lucy, thinking that they could trade their friendship for financial gains. But they were fickle, and when it came to defending Lucy from the other students, none of them were really willing to stand up for her and essentially take on the entire school.

But that was different here. Today after school she was going to meet up with her friends to cheer on her other friends. It was something which she had never done before, she had never been part of a kind of community like this, and she absolutely loved the fact that she was in one now. And it was because of that that chemistry didn't matter to her, all she wanted was for the lesson to finish and the evening to begin.

After the lesson finished, Lucy met up with Levy, who was in the same class, outside the classroom. Chemistry was situated on the school's first level, so after making it down the stairs and dumping their books in their lockers, visiting Levy's first and then Lucy's, the two girls went outside to the school courtyard where Cana, Elfman and Mirajane were waiting.

Lucy frowned, looking around the packed courtyard. "Where're the others?"

"Gray and Gajeel went to the changing rooms to get ready," Mirajane replied, "and I think Erza and Jellal went to find Natsu. They'll probably be heading to the changing rooms as well when they're done, so we should go there too. We were just waiting for you two."

Cana glared irritably at the two. "Yeah, what took you two so long? We've been waiting here, like what..."

Mirajane shook her head dismissively and smiled reassuringly at Lucy and Levy. "Oh, it was only a couple of minutes."

"Doesn't matter," Elfman grunted, standing tall over Lucy and Levy. "True men are never late."

Levy smiled nervously, raising her hand in weak protest. "But we're not men..."

"Can we just go now?" Cana interrupted, seeming especially cranky.

Mirajane nodded, turning specifically to Lucy. "Yeah, we probably should. By the way, did you... you know..."

Lucy smiled brightly, pleased with herself. "Talk to Laxus? Yeah, let's go. I'll tell you guys about it on the way..."

######

When the girls and Elfman reached the changing rooms, they found Jellal, Erza and Natsu waiting there. The changing rooms were situated in a small building, or pavilion, adjacent to the soccer pitches, a very convenient position indeed. As soon as he saw Lucy, Natsu grinned, "Well? What did Laxus say?"

Lucy was about to reply when the doors of the pavilion opened, and Gray and Gajeel emerged, fully kitted out. They too spotted Lucy and the others, and made their way over to the group.

When everyone was gathered, the attention was back on Lucy. Erza looked seriously at her. "Did you speak to Laxus? Can Natsu play?"

Lucy turned to Natsu, struggling to contain her excitement at this point. "Yes, you can!"

Natsu opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Gajeel slung his arm around Natsu's neck. "Yeah! This wouldn't have been any fun without ya!"

Gray nodded in agreement, smirking challengingly at Natsu. "I can get into the team **and** prove I'm better than you in the process. This is a win-win..."

Natsu smirked back. "As if. There's no way you're outshining me here droopy eyes..."

"Honestly, do you guys ever stop..." Cana muttered irritably. Mirajane laughed.

"It wouldn't be as fun if they weren't like this."

Jellal nodded in agreement, smiling at the boys like everyone else, when he noticed that Erza was still looking quite serious, as if she was thinking about something. "What is it?"

Erza frowned. "This doesn't seem like Laxus though..."

Lucy nodded excitedly. "I know right? All Natsu has to do is apologize and then Laxus will let him play!"

Suddenly, hearing this, Natsu stopped his argument with Gray and pulled out of Gajeel's grip. Erza stroked her chin thoughfully. "An apology huh? That's easy enough..."

"I know right? All Natsu has to do is say that he's sorry and then Laxus will just-"

"No."

Lucy stopped mid sentence. She looked over at Natsu, who was staring straight at her, a serious, determined look on his face. "Wait, what?"

"I won't apologize."

There was a short, stunned silence as everyone processed what Natsu had just said. Erza, the first to react, stepped in front of Lucy and glared at Natsu. "What are you talking about? All you have to do is say you're sorry and you'll be able to be on the team. That's what you've always wanted isn't it? How can you be so stubborn?! How can you sacrifice your goal because of pride-"

Natsu looked straight at Erza and met her glare with a glare of his own. Erza stepped back, startled. Was Natsu... standing up to her? "I won't apologize to Laxus, no way. Because I'm not sorry."

Erza was about to retort, possibly with force, before Jellal stepped between them. "Natsu, think this through. Even if you do apologize, it's not like you have to mean it. It doesn't have to mean anything. All Laxus wants is to make himself seem like the bigger man, that's all. No one will think badly of you because-"

Natsu looked past Jellal, so that he was staring straight at Lucy. "It's not about that. I won't apologize for what I did. He hurt Lucy. No matter what, I can't forgive him for that. I don't care if it means that I can't play for Fairy Tail, that doesn't matter anymore. I won't apologize for standing up for my friend!"

Lucy stared back at Natsu. He was saying that directly to her, even though everyone heard. Even though Natsu had trained so hard to get into the team. Even though all he wanted was to beat Laxus. Even though all he wanted was to represent Fairy Tail. He was willing to give that up for her, someone who he had known barely a week. "Natsu..."

Natsu then turned to Gray and Gajeel, who had been watching silently. "You two, try your best. If I can't be in the team, I'm relying on you guys to do Fairy Tail proud."

Gray snorted. "Seriously squinty eyes? You think we're going to play now?"

Natsu blinked at him and Gajeel. "What?"

Gajeel smirked at him. "Look at you. Don't think you're the only one who can act cool, making sacrifices. If you ain't gonna play, why the hell would we?!"

"You two..."

Gray punched Natsu playfully in the shoulder, and smirked at Lucy. "Lucy's our friend too. If Laxus makes an enemy of one of us, he makes an enemy of all of us. If you're not gonna play for him then we won't play for him either, no way."

Erza stared at the two. "But you guys..."

Jellal smirked, placing his hand on Erza's shoulder, as if to say it was OK. "Me too. I won't play either."

Erza's eyes widened. "You too?! But you're the vice-captain..."

Jellal smiled cheerfully at her, and then at Lucy. "It's like Gray said, we won't let Laxus walk all over us. We're a team, right?"

Levy then perked up, as if she'd just had an idea. "And none of us should go to the games! We'll show Laxus that he can't just do what he wants and get away with it."

Mirajane smiled at her, before looking around at everyone else. "So it's settled then. We'll all just boycott the games. Until Laxus backs down!"

Gajeel smirked, bringing his fist and palm together. "Hell yeah! We'll show that jerk who's boss!"

Lucy felt tears stinging her eyes. Everyone was willing to stand up to Laxus, just because of what he did to her. They were all doing this because of her.

Because she was their friend.

"G-Guys..."

Mirajane smiled kindly at her, pulling her into a comforting hug.

Gray smirked. "You're one of us, Lucy..."

Lucy nodded, her head still buried in Mirajane's shoulder. "Y-yeah..." Everyone grinned at her. Everyone except one.

"No, I won't let you guys do this."

Everyone turned to Natsu, who had just spoken up. He had the same serious expression as before. Gray frowned at him. "What do you mean 'no', we won't just forgive Laxus for what he's-"

Natsu glared at Gray. "This is between me and Laxus! You guys shouldn't get involved!"

Gray grabbed Natsu by the collar. "Shut up, we won't just let him screw around with us! We won't play for Laxus, that's not an-"

Natsu seized both of Gray's arms, and roughly pushed him off him. "You're not playing for Laxus! You're playing for Fairy Tail!"

Gray staggered backwards, but was stopped by Erza. He thanked her, before looking up and meeting Natsu's glare. "What are you saying now?!"

"I won't do what Laxus wants, but he hasn't done anything to you guys! Besides, if you guys don't play, this just suits him!"

Gray stood up fully, standing opposite Natsu. "What are you talking about?! If none of us play, the team will be weakened and Laxus will have to back down!"

Natsu grabbed his shoulders, shaking him violently. "No, this is what he wants. You guys are only three players, there'll still be a team without you guys! Besides, you guys are the best players, if you aren't playing, that will only be good for him. He'll still be the best player, but he'll have worse team-mates around him and that will make him look better. That's exactly what he wants!"

Gray pulled out of Natsu's grip and glared at the ground, beginning to see Natsu's logic. Erza slowly nodded. "He's right." Gray's head snapped up, and he glared at her.

"So just what can we do!?"

Erza stared sternly at him, giving him the same 'calm down' look as earlier in the day. "The best thing we can all do at the moment is continue to do our best for the school. One thing's for sure though, Laxus won't get away with what he's done. One day, he'll get what he deserves..."

**What did you think? Good or Bad? I have no idea how you guys are going to take this one, but it was the same for the last chapter too. I must say, the last part of this chapter reminds me especially of a chapter from my One Piece High School story, I believe it was called 'Friends' or perhaps 'Robin's Friends'. I'm not too sure but I'm too lazy to go back and check tbh. **

**What may interest you about this is that I actually wrote the ending of this chapter first, then the beginning, and then filled in the middle. In fact, I actually wrote the ending of this chapter before I even wrote the beginning of chapter 3. I just really wanted a nice cuddly friendship scene, and I hope you guys liked it.**

**As always, please leave a review guys, I don't set targets, but I want to keep getting around the same number of reviews each chapter. Oh, and thanks for reading!**


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